Omnibus Education Bill Is Sent to Full Senate

Washington--The Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee voted
unanimously last week to send its omnibus education-reauthorization
bill to the full Senate.

Although the measure is essentially the same legislation passed
earlier this fall by the panel's education subcommittee, newly added
language would alter a Chapter 1 grant formula and create new programs
to aid rural education and foster innovative school improvements.

The bill, renamed HR 5 to match its House companion, would
reauthorize a long list of programs, including the Chapter 1
compensatory-education program, Chapter 2 block grants, magnet-schools
assistance, bilingual-education grants, and impact aid.

The $18-million program to promote school innovation was added at
the behest of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, chairman of the full
committee, who previewed the idea at a hearing this month in Boston.
(See Education Week, Oct. 14, 1987.)

Terry Hartle, an aide to the Massachusetts Democrat, said the
proposed "fund for the improvement and reform of schools and teaching"
was modeled after the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary
Education.

Under the proposal, a board appointed by the Secretary of Education
would award grants to school districts, state agencies, and
higher-education institutions to help support innovative ideas for
improving precollegiate education. The fund would particularly
emphasize plans that aimed to improve teaching and included the use of
monetary or other incentives to encourage school reform.

The $10-million rural-education initiative would create 10 regional
centers to provide assistance and training to rural school districts,
with priority given to those with high poverty rates and declining
student achievement.

Chapter 1 Formula

The final version of the committee's bill also includes a revised
formula for allocating concentration grants under Chapter 1. The change
was designed to "ensure comparability interstate as well as
intrastate," according to Mr. Hartle.

Under the original version of the bill, such grants would have been
distributed to states based on the number of Chapter 1-eligible
students exceeding specified thresholds. A similar formula is included
in the version of HR 5 passed by the House last May.

As amended by the full Labor and Human Resources panel, however, the
Senate bill specifies that only half of the money would be distributed
to the states on that basis; the other half would be allocated
according to the regular Chapter 1 formula. States would then be
required to distribute their concentration funds among counties largely
on the basis of the concentration thresholds, which are slightly higher
in the House bill than in the Senate version.

The change adopted by the Senate committee would allot more
concentration money to rural states whose disadvantaged students are
not concentrated in small areas, but would still channel the grants
within states to districts with high concentrations of such
children.

The plan represents a compromise designed to appease Senator Tom
Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, who had sought to distribute all the
concentration funds through the basic Chapter 1 formula, Mr. Hartle
said.

Even with the change, argued Senator Thad Cochran, Republican of
Mississippi, the concentration-el15lgrant concept rewards "large
districts that have more resources" at the expense of rural Southern
schools. Mr. Cochran vowed to propose an amendment on the Senate floor
to rectify the situation.

Stafford Praised

Several members of the committee used last week's session to laud a
retiring colleague, Senator Robert T. Stafford, and resolved to name
the reauthorization bill after the Vermont Republican, who will step
down next year after more than 20 years in the Congress.

The second-highest-ranking Republican on the full Labor and Human
Resources panel, Senator Stafford served as chairman of its education
subcommittee during the first six years of the Reagan Administration.
During that crucial period, he was instrumental in limiting the
Administration's success in cutting and consolidating education
programs. HR 5 will be the last major education bill to show his
influence.

Mr. Stafford said last week he was proud to be associated with
education, "one of the most interesting things and one of the most
enjoyable things I have been able to do as a Senator."

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